Pet Sounds, Sunflower and Holland. Each one is amazing.

👍🏻Pet Sounds, my personal favorite that takes me back to being the lonely 16 year old driver, cruising alone in my 396, M-21 4 speed ‘78 Cutlass Calais Factory 4 speed Saginaw/305. Pet Sounds filled that empty passenger seat up in Presque Isle, Lake Erie, PA! “If I could only Paint the Picture!”

All summer long, today, summer days, pet sounds, & Wild Honey.

Pet Sounds, Beach Boys Today, Smile - All you need to get into them!

I definitely wouldn't show a new Beach Boys fan Holland, Sunflower, or even Pet Sounds.. though they are fantastic records that I love. But you hit the nail on the head with Endless Summer, as it's the perfect early Beach Boys mix tape. Also, Today! is like Pet Sounds with balls because it has driving guitars throughout that would keep a newcomer engaged. In addition, I'd show them Smiley Smile and Love You because they display their most creative and fun later work. THEN, the new Beach Boys fan can graduate to Holland.

Here’s my top 5: 5: 20/20 4: Surfs Up 3: Sunflower 2: Pet Sounds 1: SMiLE

Your respect for Holland and especially Only With You is so cool!

Nice, well-rounded selection! Strange how "Holland" has, over the years, replaced "Surf's Up" as the favorite Jack Rieley/"hippie" period Beach Boys' album. I now rank "Holland" higher too, but I think 20-30 years ago, "Surf's Up" had the better reputation. Not sure why that changed. Anyway, cool video and a great selection! Thanks for posting this!

Beach Boys Today is a masterpiece. Straight up

My brother and I knew Endless summer as kids in the 70’s. But, it wouldn’t be until 1993 when we became obsessed fans. My brother got the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey twofer and we were hooked. By 94, we were trying to track down the Capitol twofers and the 70’s titles. What a depressing nightmare that was. They were impossible to find. It was bad, I bought a copy of Sunflower with no cd book. Me and brother almost came to blows when we found one of the 70’s titles in a used cd section of a store. We finally got them all but man! I got the internet in 1995 and my First purchase was 3 sealed copies of Pacific Ocean Blue.

Nice job....Beach boys fan since 1965 and Smiley Smile is their best album and it is better than Pet Sounds, in my opinion. I did ratings of the top 16 albums (1-10 per song) and Smiley Smile got 9.72. 2. Pet sounds 8.76. 3. Friends 8.5. 4. Wild honey 7.9 5. 20/20 7.9. 6. All Summer long 7.58. 7. Today 7.58. 8. Little Deuce Coupe 7.41. 9. Surfer girl 7.16. 10. Shut down 2 6.83. 11. Surfing USA 6.1 12. Surfin Safari 6.0 13. Surfs up 6.0 14. Sunflower 5.75 15. Party 4.9 16. Holland 4.4. People ask how can I rank Holland and Sunflower so low? Easy. Take away the sentimental value and the fact that each album only has about 4 great songs and there you have it

You should consider reviewing Pet Sounds every 5 years. It is an album that resonates differently as one ages.

We must be in sync. For the last 12 hours or so, I've been thinking so much about "The Beach Boys Today!" It came out when I was in 7th grade, and I hadn't yet become the Beach Boys fan I would become, but I sure remember hearing "Help Me, Rhonda" constantly. It was all over every top 40 A.M. radio station in town. Some years later, after I realized my love for their music went deep, I had a friend at the time who had a very large record collection. I was able to hear "The Beach Boys Today!", and absolutely fell in love with it. However, it was also very frustrating, because I could not find it at any record store. I wanted my own copy. To cut to the chase, I found out years later that it would have been one of the albums Capital Records took out of distribution, in the Beach Boys' lawsuit over royalties. I could go on at length (I won't), but when you consider the level of musical evolvment Brian was at, at the time, having gone way beyond the surfing genre, and making music that really came from the heart, songs such as "She Knows Me Too Well"...this music needs (needed) to be available. It's just so unconscionable that they would take "Today!" out of distribution. But maybe it was too deep for the suits at Capital. The upbeat quality of side one, followed by the slower music on side two. I always thought "Today!" would make a great party album. Great music to dance to on side one, and, as the party's slowing down, the slow dancing quality of side two. The songs on side two blend into each other beautifully. I always thought the cover for "The Beach Boys Today!" was pretty cool. The orange lettering, and that great shot of the group. (It looks like they are comfortably sitting next to a swimming pool, but in fact, in the original photo, they were all dangling off of a diving board, and they cut half of the picture out, and reversed the photo). Several years later I located and bought a used copy (in good condition) of "Today!" And, in the early 1990's, Capital re-issued a somewhat truncated vinyl version of "The Beach Boys Today", but it wasn't the same. I'm just saying that it would have been so great to have gone to a record store, and bought this album, when it came out originally, and to have seen it prominently displayed in the Beach Boys' section. Now, let's see, you mentioned several other albums, didn't you?Well, I've spent so much time writing about "The Beach Boys Today!"...that I'll just simply say that I love all the albums you referenced. Recently, I listened to "Leaving This Town" off of "Holland", sung by Blondie Chaplan, and was just blown away by it, loved the middle part of it, loved all of it... "Endless Summer" just hit it out of the ballpark at the time. A double album that went platinum. Incredible listening and enjoyment beyond description for millions of people. Of course, we all know the change in direction it spelled for the group. Anyway, Giggens, thank you for your posting, and letting me vent some of the feelings I've had for a long time about "The Beach Boys Today!"

My five-for-a-neophyte = Love You / Smiley Smile / Pet Sounds / Sunflower / Friends Related = Earlier this year I had the pleasure of selecting and sending a Friends (unstoppable LP reference) teenage (Farmers?) daughter who lives in Japan (Somewhere Near Japan?) 30 MP3's of The Boys masterwerks because she began asking her mum about who was this band that I was always banging on about, so the request came and I was happy to carry out The Righteous Werk. I didn't include any singles whatsoever as I thought: If she likes what she hears, those hits are ultra-easy to find! I attached a note saying "If you like these and want more, get anything by them from between 1965 and 1977 and if you like That, you can go before and after!" - What a journey to begin! It's nice to introducing The Boys to someone, isn't it? (Isn't It Time? It's About Time! - I'll stop...) ;-)

Hello Giggens I agree 100% with your review,however I would have added Summer Days ( and Summer Nights ) also All Summer Long.I think they both reflect the summer spirit,and the tightness of The Beach Boys harmonies we have come to know and love. Just wondering when your going to do a review of the “Today” Album ( or have you done it and maybe I missed it ) Thanks Again

Hi Giggens, great video, my top 5 would be at the moment: Sunflower, per sounds, friends, wild honey, surf's up

I was waiting for the last choice to be Summer in Paradise!! I would swap out Endless Summer for Summer Days. Most already know the hits but Summer Days captures how awesome they were when they sang more about sun and surf. Great review as always!

Hi Giggens, I cant fault you at all with any of your album choice here, what a joy i had when i found my copies and brought them home WOW. I remember how good it was to get into each of these albums , especially when i first started collecting and didnt know who Brian Wilson was or that they were Cousins, friends and brothers, i just loved the music and my knowledge came as my collection progressed. One little point though, here in UK endless summer was a single album , but i think it had the same tracks and the quality was the best i have ever heard, an amazing album.

Terrific choices. I'd have included Surfin' USA and made it a top 6. ;)

I had reviewed the Pet Sounds Sessions for my newspaper, and as a result I was invited to discuss it on a Montreal radio station. I played the vocal-only Wouldn't It Be Nice for the people at the station on their top-of-the-line speakers (and for the listeners, but unfortunately the station is AM) and those in the studio were absolutely gobsmacked at the beauty of the voices of the Beach Boys.

Gotta have Pet Sounds & the SMiLE Sessions in there!

I'm a newbie to the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson I'm now a fan of the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson

today! was their best album imo its like pet sounds but earlier and imo better because i like the early beach boys a lot and this still has the early beach boys fun aswell as brians genius

Interesting video, Giggens. If you were to produce a video of your 6-10 choices, what would they be? I'd probably swap Endless Summer for Summer Days, too. Take into consideration Summer Days was an official release. Not criticizing since I can understand why this was chosen. It is a good overview as to the best surf and car songs of the Beach Boys. Spirit Of America is a great follow-up collection. It pretty much shows you there's more to the Beach Boys than surfin' and cruisin' songs.

I like all of those choices except for Holland. I probably would have replaced Holland with Surf's Up. Endless Summer was a great pick as well 👌

2:00 , I feel like “god only knows” is a popular song? And probably more well more know in the mainstream culture then slope John b. But “god only knows” is definitely more well known in mainstream pop culture then any other track on pet sounds, aside from the two you mentioned.

Can I cheat and have the version of Pet Sounds that was included as a double with Carl and The Passions, and Sunflower that included Surfs Up?

Giggens! Love your content. Could you review the welcome back album by John Sebastian? It would mean a ton.

I agree with all of these! The only change I might make would be to switch out Endless Summer and swap in the '85 album (which I have a major soft spot for). Only because most people are casually familiar with a lot of the early tracks. But, still, great choices all the way around!

I was waiting to comment "what about 'Endless Summer'"? hahaha I agree wholeheartedly with your pics.

i would choose surfs up or smiley smile or maybe surfer girl over endless summer and holland but good choices nonetheless

I love all of these albums, but for I think some of these are a bit heavy and take time to appreciate. Some lighter yet still amazing albums I would recommend for noobs would be: Summer Days, All Summer Long, and Wild Honey (my favorite Beach Boys album)

Summer Days should be on here, it’s a supremely underrated album. The simple lyrics make people not notice just how musically complex it is, production and arrangement wise it’s even a step up from Today and it’s a brilliant send-off to their summer fun era

We' must be on the same (Catch A) Wavelength, Giggens. This would be my Top 5 as well. If compilations weren't allowed, I might have substituted The Beach Boys Love You -- too weird?-- or Friends in place of Endless Summer . When I saw the video still of The Beach Boys Today cover, I thought to myself, "Yes!. Here's the review you said was coming". Looking forward to that one as well as The Beach Boys Love You. I think forgot to request the Surfer Girl album; hopefully You'll Get Around to that one as well at some point :) If we could pick just two albums to entice new fans, I'd go with Pet Sounds and Endless Summer (I don't have Endless Summer on CD, but I've burned dozens of copies of Pet Sounds over the years. I've gotten the whole spectrum of reactions from Wows! and OMGs! to yawns ) If I weren't already a Beach Boys fanatic, my curiosity would be piqued by this video. Good job!

The absolute closest we are going to get to a Pet Sounds review! I've never wished Giggens was 89, more than I do now, lol, jk.

1. All Summer Long 2. Today 3. Pet Sounds 4. Holland 5. LA (Light Album) Kind of shows the various sides of the BB's. Not too much of the weird or the dorky/cheesy that might throw newbies off.

Hey Giggens, I agree with you 100%!

What about Friends?

My first Beach Boys album was The Best Of The Beach Boys Vol.3

Hey Giggens. I hope you are reading this. I am a huge fan of your videos. I have been watching you for years now and I was wanting to know if you could do a vinyl review on The Beach Boys That's Why God Made The Radio Album.

A point you could make to have people listen to Pet Sounds is "God Only Knows is Paul McCartney's favorite song of all time". Paul has made this statement many times. He calls it "The perfect pop song".

Are u going to talk about McCartney lll

I still don’t know how Sheldon got a song stuck in his if he has eidetic memory

Ahhh, 40 years ago. I remember back in 1980, sitting down and firing up the old Atari web browser to watch your youtube review of the Holland album (it had just come out 7 years before!), on the same TV I had just watched the Carter-Reagan debate... 🙂 I like your five albums for new fans. Just have to disagree about the Endless Summer album cover. I've had the album since I was a kid but always thought the cover was rather hideous. I have read on the internet which member each drawing is supposed to be, but they're so bad, I still don't see it (except for Brian). It is a great compilation for the 1962-65 period, I just hate the cover art. But I also love Sunflower and hate its cover picture, so guess I'm just that way...

The next question is when should a Beach Boys fan listen to Smile?

how can you mention Pet Sounds and not include God only Knows Come on Giggens big slip up there!

GOD ONLY KNOWS, i bet everyone knows that one

What, no Summer in Paradise? 😆

I Mostly agree with you album picks I'd replacd Holland with summer days and summer nights because it has a lot of hits on it and a lot of tubular deep tracks that have a lot of passion in it like let him run wild and salt lake city and my favorite girl from New York city a lot of awesome work for under 2 minutes. The second one I would replace is the greatest hits one, not a fan of those because they make people just want to listen to the hits and divert them from the album, I'd replace it with friends because of the nice chill environment it bestows upon. Other than that great album picks. Also if seen your b52 vids that inspired me to listen to them great band.